The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Water sports involving boards such as wakeboarding, skiing, and knee boarding, for example, are among the most popular boating activities in the United States. Owing to the size of these boards and the cramped space of most boats, ski racks have become increasingly popular in recent years. To this end, conventional ski racks are typically permanently affixed onto the elevated tower of the ski boat and function as a shelf for storing the boards when they are not in use.
Although these racks are suitable for ski boats having an elevated tower, the vast majority of small boats used for skiing do not have towers. In these instances, boaters are forced to store the water sports equipment on the floor or other unsecured spaces within the boat, thereby posing a tripping hazard to the boat occupants and often times resulting in damage to the board or boards themselves.
Although some previous attempts have been made to provide a retrofit board rack, including U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,806, to Shald; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,015, to Hunter, each of these devices require the racks to be permanently or semi-permanently mounted onto the boat via clamps, screws and bolts, for example, thereby causing damage the vessel and possibly voiding the boat and/or hull warranty. Moreover, as these devices are typically secured in a permanent or semi-permanent manner, the known racks are not transferable from one boat to another without modification.
In addition to the above, because these racks are mounted to the outside portion of the boat, users are unable to safely load and transporting the boards within the rack prior to heading to the water, as the boards cannot safely travel at highway speeds hanging from the side of the boat being trailered.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a lightweight portable water sport board rack that does not suffer from the drawbacks of the above noted devices, can be utilized interchangeably with any type of boat and that does not require mounting hardware.